Summary: Paying vendors should be hassle-free, but ask anyone in Accounting to explain their manual AP processes, and you’ll see their shoulders tense and their jaws clench. Here’s why manual accounts payable processes are so stressful and how AP automation software for Sage 100 can fix them.
At first, your business’s small stack of bills seems downright manageable. Most of them are only due once a month, which is a breath of fresh air compared to the grind of payroll, so you figure you can handle them. As the business grows, your accounting team grows too, and you ask those experts to handle the manual processes. That’s what they’re hired to do, right?
Wrong.
Let’s talk about why manual AP processes cause trouble for the accounting department, and what you can do instead.
The 3 Top Areas Where Manual AP Breaks Down
Your accounting team has a lot to handle, with very tight deadlines and very high stakes. They’re smart folks, and they know quite well that repetitive manual processes are especially prone to error. So they make sure to devote ample time to crossing their t’s and dotting their i’s when entering and paying invoices by hand.
Their caution reduces the likelihood of errors, but it also slows processes down. And that’s not the only consequence. If you feel like the accounting team is a bit slow and any of the issues below sound familiar, consider those your signs that your AP process has outgrown manual handling.
Irritated vendors
An invoice sits in someone’s inbox, or on someone’s desk, waiting for a signature. If that person is out of office or just busy, the invoice waits, and so does your vendor. Sometimes the invoice gets buried under a pile of other papers, and the annoyed vendor has to chase you for a payment. If that happens often, your accountants’ blood pressure will soar whenever the phone rings.
Missing invoices
Sometimes, invoices fall through the cracks. They can get dropped between desks during the approval process, or picked up with other papers by mistake and filed somewhere unknown. Either way, you don’t have a record of the payment or the invoice, and when the vendor reaches out, your team has to drop everything and hunt down the paperwork.
Last-minute scrambles
If your team can’t control how much employees spend, and on what, you’ll end up with some unpleasant surprises. Think about your last very large, very unexpected bill. How much last-minute cash shuffling did your accountants have to do to handle it?
How AP Automation Software for Sage 100 Can Help
If those 3 items struck a chord, it’s time to take action. And as we all know, the most efficient way to take action in the 2020s is to automate a process.
You have a wide range of AP automation software options for Sage 100 (examples include INBOOKS and Sage AP Automation). Each one is built to meet different preferences, needs, and workflows. Since each option varies subtly, it’s best to check with a Sage 100 expert before deciding. However, if you’d like to start mulling over your options now, here are a few capabilities that AP automation offers:
- Automated invoice capture: Instead of someone manually entering every invoice, the system auto-extracts the data for you. No more error-prone entry by hand.
- Conditional approval routing: Invoices route automatically to the right approver at the right time, so invoices don’t gather dust on someone’s desk. No more irritated vendors.
- One-stop document management: Being able to find invoices instantly, no matter what, can mean the difference between a productive day and one spent digging through files and piles of papers. No more missing invoices.
- Purchasing policy enforcement: Some systems can enforce your purchasing policies automatically, rather than relying on employees to memorize the thresholds and request approval for bigger purchases. No more last-minute scrambles.
Take the Next Step
Curious about your full range of options, the costs, and the setup process and timing for AP automation solutions?
I’m happy to walk through your current process and help you decide which approach makes sense for your specific needs.
